Lizzie Garner
Chief People Officer
ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers
Episode 312
HR's New Blueprint: Reverse-Engineering People Strategy for Business Impact
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleFebruary 6, 2025 · 9:20
Thesis
“HR strategies should be reverse-engineered directly from specific business needs and desired customer experiences, rather than relying on rigid HR theory, to foster high-performing teams and drive organizational success.”
Show notes
Lizzie Garner never studied HR. She came up through sales and retail banking at Chase, moved to Guaranteed Rate, and spent years learning how businesses actually make money before she ever designed an HR program. That sequence — business first, HR second — is exactly what she thinks the function gets backwards.
As Chief People Officer at ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers, Lizzie operates with a principle she's carried from her business background: "I have been sort of brought up and trained to make decisions based on business need, not HR theory or how it should work." That means every people program starts with a business question, not an HR best practice. What does the organization need to deliver for patients? What talent, training, and structure enables that? The HR solution is reverse-engineered from the answer — not selected from a menu of conventional approaches.
This philosophy makes her refreshingly skeptical of her own function's defaults. When she encounters resistance to a business-first HR approach, she doesn't argue for it philosophically — she demonstrates it through outcomes. Her approach to organizational design is equally pragmatic: build agile talent structures, test them quickly, and adjust without the attachment to previous decisions that often keeps HR programs running long after they've stopped working. Her advice for business leaders considering a move into HR: the transfer is more natural than you think, and your fluency in operations and finance may be exactly what HR organizations need most right now.
- Business need over HR theory — reverse-engineering people programs from organizational requirements, not best-practice templates
- Patient-centric (customer-centric) HR design — building training and support that directly enhances the end customer experience
- Agile organizational design — quick iteration on talent structures without attachment to previous decisions
- Business-to-HR career transitions — why operational and finance backgrounds make for more effective people leaders
- Overcoming skepticism about non-traditional HR — demonstrating value through outcomes rather than credentials
- Curiosity as an HR superpower — asking deeper questions to understand what the organization actually needs
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What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize business needs over rigid HR theory by reverse-engineering HR programs and policies to align directly with organizational goals.
- 2Adopt a patient-centric or customer-centric approach to HR, designing training and support programs that enhance the overall customer experience.
- 3Embrace non-traditional career paths into HR, leveraging transferable skills and a business background to bring innovative perspectives and flexibility.
- 4Be agile and iterative in organizational design, quickly adjusting talent strategies to meet evolving business requirements and opportunities.
- 5Cultivate a mindset of continuous curiosity, asking deeper questions to uncover the true underlying needs and motivations within the business and among employees.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the notion that HR must adhere to a 'deep, rigid HR playbook,' advocating instead for decisions based on immediate business needs rather than HR theory.
- •Suggests that HR plans should be 'held back' until the exact business needs are clear, contrasting with proactive HR initiatives that might be disconnected from current business realities.
- •Implies that the skepticism surrounding non-traditional HR backgrounds is unwarranted, demonstrating how business leadership experience can be a significant asset in the HR function.
In Lizzie's words
“I have been sort of brought up and trained to make decisions based on business need, not HR theory or how it should work.”
This quote encapsulates Lizzie's core philosophy of prioritizing business outcomes over traditional HR dogma.
“I really hold back any HR plan until I know exactly what the business needs to be able to support it.”
It highlights her reactive, demand-driven approach to HR strategy, ensuring relevance and impact.
“Reverse engineering our program to fit the customer experience is what's ultimately most important to me.”
This quote directly links HR programs to external customer satisfaction, a unique differentiator.
“Being able to kind of come in and out as someone who's influencing the leaders and showing them what the talent could be does allow you to design the talent to ensure that you're creating a truly high-performance team with the strengths, the opportunities, varied approaches to get all of the right talent in the right place.”
It illustrates her dynamic and influential role in shaping organizational structure and talent for optimal performance.
“Stay curious just a little longer. Ask one more question, ask one more kind of deeper belief question. Try to figure out exactly what it is that people are trying to do.”
Her parting advice emphasizes the critical importance of deep inquiry and understanding in HR and leadership.
The problems this episode addresses
- •HR departments struggling with rigid playbooks that don't effectively support dynamic business needs.
- •Businesses facing a disconnect between HR strategies and tangible customer (patient) experience outcomes.
- •Leaders with non-traditional backgrounds in HR encountering skepticism or resistance from more conventional HR professionals.
- •Organizations in fast-growth phases (organic or M&A) needing to quickly and effectively design talent structures for high performance.
- •HR being perceived as a function that says 'no,' hindering its ability to proactively support business goals.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
I came up through the Chase retail bank back when Chase was putting branches
Career Paths for Financial Planners
Coming from sales and business background, what unique perspectives do you bring to HR
What Differentiates Your HR Plan From Traditional HR Pros?
ClearChoice aligns HR priorities with business needs, and how has approach benefited
ClearChoice CEO on Aligning HR Priorities with Business Needs
Lizzie, what challenges did you face transitioning from sales leadership to HR
Challenges of Transition from Sales to HR
How do you approach organizational design and people strategies differently in your business-first mindset
In the Business-First Mindset
Lizzie says if you have interests, identify those transferable skills
Pivoting Out of HR: Lessons Learned
Lizzie shares parting advice with Built by People podcast community
Lizzie on the Built by People Podcast
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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